Georgia Trend Daily – Sept. 5, 2023
Sept. 5, 2023 Georgia Recorder
Georgia jobs plentiful, but working in so-called No. 1 place to do business reported to be pitiful
Ross Williams reports that Peach State politicos on both sides of the aisle like to tout Georgia as the best state in the nation to do business. But a new report from Oxfam America says Georgia may be one of the worst states to be a worker.
Sept. 5, 2023 Georgia Trend – Exclusive!
(Re)making Places
Kenna Simmons reports, if you were a suburban kid in the ’70s and ’80s, the local mall likely filled at least one of those roles – maybe all, depending on the day you went there. That era was dubbed the Malling of America and it lasted until 1990, the peak year for mall building when 16 million square feet of retail and food court spaces opened.
Sept. 5, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Rivian adds former CEO of Porsche Cars North America to its C-suite
Zachary Hansen reports that Rivian announced Friday that it has poached a former Porsche executive to add to its team at a critical juncture for the electric vehicle startup. The California-based automaker hired Kjell Gruner as its chief commercial officer and president of business growth, tasking him with overseeing several company functions including sales and marketing.
Sept. 5, 2023 The Center Square
State officials wonder how Georgia businesses fill their open jobs
T.A. DeFeo reports that Georgia has 350,000 job postings but only about 170,000 unemployed Georgians. State officials routinely highlight Georgia’s low unemployment rate, but that doesn’t address the worker shortage.
Sept. 5, 2023 Savannah Morning News, UGA
Fields to pancakes: UGA researchers seek methods to keep blueberries growing amid climate change
Jordan Powers reports, an assistant professor of horticulture in the University of Georgia’s College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and a small-fruit specialist with UGA Cooperative Extension, Rubio Ames endeavors to better understand blueberry plant physiology and how it can be manipulated to increase production efficiency.
Sept. 5, 2023 Rome News-Tribune
Dalton Utilities awarded $1.6 million for PFAS study
Staff reports that the Georgia Environmental Finance Authority awarded a $1,581,000 grant to Dalton Utilities to perform an emerging contaminants pilot study. Funding comes from the federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, which earmarked money to reduce exposure to perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances and additional emerging contaminants.
Sept. 5, 2023 GPB
In Valdosta, Idalia left trees in people’s houses. Getting them out can cost a lot
Grant Blankenship reports that recovery from Hurricane Idalia continues in South Georgia after the storm brought heavy rain and winds up to 90 mph on Wednesday. For some in the Valdosta area, recovery is about maintaining perspective.
Sept. 5, 2023 GlobalAtlanta.com
AGCO Donates $50,000 to Feed Ukrainian Children, Displaced Persons
Trevor Williams reports that Atlanta-based AGCO Corp.’s is always focused on providing food for the future, but that task has taken on additional urgency in war-torn Ukraine. The Fortune 500 tractor company’s charitable arm has donated $50,000 to a Ukrainian nonprofit, MHP-Gromadi Charitable Foundation, to purchase Ko-Ko baby food for 14,500 families and 70 tons of canned chicken to be distributed to internally displaced persons in the country’s south and east.
Sept. 5, 2023 Saporta Report
Something’s in the air: two Atlanta organizations to initiate air pollution monitoring in underserved communities
Mark Lannaman reports that the Center for Sustainable Communities (CSC) announced an grant of $498,401 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the study Monitoring Air Pollution in Underserved South Atlanta (MAP-USA). Similarly, AQEarth just announced it would be hosting an environmental justice tour, in conjunction with local groups West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA) and Community Health Aligning Revitalization, Resilience, and Sustainability (CHARRS), to kick off its AQEarth West Atlanta study for air quality and pollution.
Sept. 5, 2023 State Affairs
State Senators seek solutions to truck driver shortage
Jill Jordan Sieder reports that a Senate study committee charged with finding solutions to Georgia’s truck driver shortage heard from truck drivers, business owners and other leaders in the trucking industry this week. They described challenges ranging from a tight labor market to high insurance costs to onerous federal regulations that are putting a squeeze on the industry.
Sept. 5, 2023 Capitol Beat News
Craft brewers looking for General Assembly to ease restrictions
Dave Williams reports, in 2017, the General Assembly passed legislation allowing craft breweries in Georgia for the first time to sell their product directly to consumers in limited quantities. While the bill has helped spark a huge growth spurt in the industry, craft brewers say they are still hampered by a system that favors beer wholesalers.
Sept. 5, 2023 Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Jolt: Will Georgia Senate sanction ‘grifter’ in ranks?
Adam Van Brimmer, Greg Bluestein, Patricia Murphy and Tia Mitchell report that Gov. Brian Kemp accused Sen. Colton Moore of engineering a “grifter scam.” House Speaker Jon Burns said Moore’s call to impeach Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis could break all sorts of laws. And Moore’s Senate GOP colleagues assailed him as a shameless publicity hound.
